Tag: Book Review

Packt Publishing has recently asked me to review the “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Reporting” book. I have just finished reviewing it and I found the book to be an excellent source for understanding reporting in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It covers both the core reporting capabilities as well as the advanced dynamics CRM reporting features.

The book provides clear and valuable information about the basics of reporting, SQL Server, Dynamics CRM Entity Relationships and Database Basics. The book then delves into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM reporting capabilities starting with the simple Dynamics CRM report wizard to create Dynamics CRM reports and then focusing on the more advanced features. It introduces the SQL Report Builder and creating contextual and inline Dynamics CRM reports. It then briefly covers the use of reports and charts in Dynamics CRM dashboards. Finally the book discusses custom reporting and automation and the mobile client.

Overall the book is easy to read and has simple approach to explain complex reporting features in Dynamics CRM. I strongly recommend this book for Dynamics CRM reporting developers and other CRM consultants who want to understand more about the types of reports and capabilities Microsoft Dynamics CRM has.

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Packt Publishing has recently asked me to review the “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Cookbook” book. I have just finished reviewing it and I found the book to be a good introduction to any new starters into the Dynamics CRM world.

The book has 10 chapters over about 380 pages. The book tries to cover all core features of Dynamics CRM including its installation, maintenance and administration. The book also provides a good overview on Data management and Dynamics CRM solutions management in chapters 4 and 5. It then tries to briefly explain customising Dynamics CRM using standard customisation and configuration capabilities. It also covers creating ribbon buttons, site map customisation and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Processes and Workflows. Finally, the book highlights the out of the box integration between Dynamics CRM and SharePoint.

I found the book to provide a good introductions to Dynamics CRM new starters at beginner-level. It helps their understanding of the Microsoft CRM software system and gives them basics on how to deploy, maintain, configure, and customize a Dynamics CRM 2011 applications.

The book also assumes the read has some basic IT Infrastructure knowledge and some functional knowledge of Dynamics CRM.

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Packt Publishing has recently asked me to review the “Getting Started with nopCommerce” book. I have just finished reading it and I found the book to be a good introduction to any new starters who want to build a website using nopCommerce. The book does not focus on the programming, coding or extension of nopCommerce online shop but it rather focuses on the functionality. The book is more of a practical guide on how to install, setup and configure your Ecommerce store and Online shop based on nopCommerce. It does not include .NET code samples or guides on how to programmatically extend nopCommerce.

The book seems to be trying to show non-developers how to setup and configure nopCommerce with plenty of step by step guides supported with Screen shots of nopCommerce. It is about 125 pages, so not a massive or large book to read but rather an introduction guide if you want to quickly get started with the core functionality of nopCommerce.

I found the book to be fairly useful for nopCommerce starters and I recommend to site owners or starters who want to learn how to deploy and configure their nopCommerce Online store.

In case you don’t know what nopCommerce is, or do, here is what it is:

nopCommerce is an open source e-commerce solution and online shop that contains both a catalog frontend and an administration tool backend. nopCommerce is a fully customizable shopping cart. It’s stable and highly usable. From downloads to documentation, nopCommerce.com offers a comprehensive base of information, resources, and support to the nopCommerce community.

nopCommerce is a fully customizable shopping cart. It’s stable and highly usable. nopCommerce is an open source e-commerce solution that is ASP.NET 4.5 (MVC 4) based with a MS SQL 2005 (or higher) backend database. Our easy-to-use shopping cart solution is uniquely suited for merchants that have outgrown existing systems, and may be hosted with your current web host or our hosting partners. It has everything you need to get started in selling physical and digital goods over the internet. nopCommerce offers unprecedented flexibility and control.

Since it is open-source, nopCommerce’s source code is available free for download.